One Shots: Grey Lupus
Characters * The Stranger: * Gold Lio * Red Taurus * Grey Lupus Appears * Sphere Robot Beasts Some Time Ago The girl ran through the jungle, gaunt in appearance, and frail. Her red hair was long and was being easily caught in the trees. Dark circles and bag were around her eyes, and she ran through the jungle with nothing but black tattered cloth on. Everything spooked her, all the sounds of the jungle, all the signs of life, this strange foreign environment. This fear drove her out of the ruins she awoke in, the monstrous statues there, frightened her. Without warning it landed in front of her, kick up a cloud of dust as she fell to the ground. Out of the dust came a massive golden lion, of absurd size. She crawled back, tears running down her cheeks in fear as the creature moved towards her, eyes glaring, throat growling and fangs bared. She curled up into the fetal position, arms blocking her face as she closed her eyes and began crying, expecting her end. Yet, it didn't come, she lowered her arms and opened her eyes to see the lion, staring at her, examining her, examining the child like expression, of confusion on her face. It moved closer to her, and she was startled, but as the two locked eye contact, the girl extended her hand to the lion's snout. Present Lio, the golden lion, sat across from Taurus, the red bull. The two stared at each other within the woods, darkened by the night, save the light of the campfire nearby. The two shifted into robot mode, Lio, sporting a faceplace, and his lion head on his chest. Tauras had a visor across his eyes, and the bull horns on his helmet. "This is insane..." said Taurus. They had transformed to speak normally, instead of using their com-system, for fear 'she' would hear them. "Why are you walking about with her?" "She's...broken..." Lio replied "She's more a lost child than anything else..." "Most lost children are not so dangerous, and while I agree she is obviously 'broken', I would not call her a child." "Yet, she needs us..." "No, we need to destroy her!" "Keep your voice down, and your temper. What do you think those monsters are after? Do you think all our problems go away if her body expires, she is not mere organic, she's beyond even us. No, they seek to bring harm to her, and bring about all that we fear." "Fear, speak for yourself!" "Shush, and do not give me that, have you so easily forgotten--" "Lio...?" said the girl's voice. It was child like, confused, and just rousing from a stupor. "Lio...?" she said again. Now she clearly more aware, and concerned. "LIO!?" She screamed with terror. Lio wasted no time and returned to his beast mode, and ran off towards her, while Taurus walked behind him. The red robot came upon the, the girl sitting up on her red coat, snuggling her tear addled face into Lio's great mane, still sniffling. She wiped her tears, "Another nightmare...?" Lio asked, as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Lio went down on all fours and laid down his side as she laid down on his stomach, immediately going to sleep. Taurus came and knelt down, looking Lio in the face. "What greatness we are, reduced, to a man-child's teddy bears..." "Shush..." Lio replied "Well, we shall see what the others think. She lead you to me didn't she..." "Shush...we sleep now, and deal with this later." "Fine..." Taurus resumed his beast form and went to sleep on the opposite side of the campfire. "So what are we dealing with...?" asked the older man, in a grey suit. He sat in a simple office, a monitor and keyboard. On the computer were images of the girl, walking about with her gilded feline companion, an image of the rocket monster that attacked them, and her walking away with the golden lion and now a red bull, both of absurd size. "Uncertain..." said a woman's voice, over the computer "But those 'pets' of hers are giving off strange infrared readings." "What else..?" "They are strangely very good at dropping of the grid, despite their less than conspicuous nature. Also, this isn't the first time she has been attacked. Several times in the past she had been located near, before, or after when one of these things has been reported. The most interesting thing also found noticed was this." A picture of Lio's robot mode appeared, showing him in the air, and charging a plasma sphere in his lion head's mouth. "We think they are weapons of some sort." "And now she has two..." the gentleman said with an ominous tone "So do we have any clue where she is...?" "Not at the moment..." "Why are we following her...?" asked Taurus. He was on his beast mode, like Lio, following the girl, who now had her red jacket on. Her dark attire clashed with the childish and jovial manner in which she walked through the forest, the two massive beasts behind her. "Because she is able to somehow find the others..." replied Lio. "And you don't find that...unsettling...?" "Not important, what is important is that we find the others." "I agree, though perhaps not for the same reasons. We do need to bring the others into this, but her ability to track us is...how is she doing that?" "How does she do anything...?" Taurus turned away for a moment, clearly thinking. "No idea...I don't know how it is she can hear our com systems." "That's simple, my mind can pick up and decipher electromagnetic waves like your short wave radio signals. That, and because I know your communication language by heart, I can easily understand what you're saying..." said the girl, with tone of someone feeling ever so clever. "And yet you cry when you big golden teddy bear isn't around." She stopped, in her tracks, and turned around to the bull, clearly upset. "Lio is not my teddy bear! ...He's my stuff cat plushie." "...What...is the difference...?" Taurus asked, genuinely confused. "Simple, teddy bears are for when your sleeping, but you can snuggle with plushies at any time!" Taurus was silent, before breaking out into laughter. "Are you her warden, is she your punishment...?" "What does he mean...?" the girl asked, head titled, eyebrow raised and holding a look of vacuous confusion. "He means, now I have to take care of you..." said Lio, clearly annoyed. "What's wrong with that? I am fairly awesome." She said with an amused smirk. "Sure..." said Taurus. It was hard to say if he was amused "So when are we going to find Lupus?" "That depends..." "On what...?" "On whether he wants to be found, we have been walking around in circles..." "What, no we haven't!" The girl pointed to the ground, and the two mechanoids noticed their footprints, in front of them. "Why have lead us in circles?" "I didn't, I'm just following this Lupus fellow." she said with a shrug. "Lupus, you mangy mutt, come out, we need to speak with you!" There was silence. "Don't ignore me you stupid canine, I know you can hear me!" Taura ran off, heading into the trees, and bulldozing anything in his way. "Should we tell him, he's going the wrong way?" "He will figure it out." said Lio "So where do you sense Lupus...?" "In the trees." "Ah..." Lio, sat down on his hindquarters and seemed to take a deep breath, before letting out a sonic roar, as the girl put fingers in her ears. The trees shook and something massive and grey fell out of them, previously unseen. It landed not with a thud, but a 'puff', as it seemed to land gently. The girl ran off towards the figure with Lio following her. "Oh, look a puppy!" she said. The wolf, who stood face to face with her on all fours, and sported a uniform gunmetal grey coat, growled at her. She was taken back for a moment, then keel over and went. "Grrrr..." in a playful fashion. "You think that is funny...?" said the wolf. He turned to Lio "And you, what are you doing with 'her'?" Lio stepped forward and turned and looked back to the girl. "Stay with Taurus..." he said "Lupus and I need to have a conversation." "What do you think they are talking about?" the girl asked, lying on the back of Taurus, clearly annoyed by her presence on his person as he tried to sit on the ground. In the distance, Lio and Lupus had taken on their robotic forms. The two mechanoids shared a similar body design, except Lio, was a golden lion, and Lupus was a dark grey wolf. "Probably you..." said Taurus. "Why...?" "You're dangerous...don't you remember anything...?" "No and yes. I remember that...I don't remember things. You guys seem familiar to me, but I don't recall ever meeting you guys before." "Huh..." She slid down, and looked him in the eyes. "Why do you ask, do you know who I was...you make it sound like you do..." He forced her back upwards, with the flip of his head. "Talk to Lio..." "Hmmm..." "What...?" "You're always making mean comments about me, but when I ask why you won't tell me..." "Hmph, Lio is your babysitter, not me..." "Eeeehhh..." The was silent for a moment. "We have visitors..." "What...?" said Taurus. He looked up, only for the drone to struck out of the air, by what appeared to be needle. The other two mechanoids arrived, with Lupus getting there first. "What is it...?" asked Lio. The drone was not spherical, like they had expected, it was essentially a camera mounted to three fan propellers on the side in rings. Lupus' optic sensors noted a radio transmitter receiver within the object. "It appears to be..." said Lupus, pausing for a moment. "Native..." said the girl. The three looked at her, who was now standing on her own. "What? The tech the bad guys use is clearly more advance than this, and this world does have a civilization, we've walked through several of their town." Lupus turned to Lio, annoyed. "She walks through them..." the yellow robot said "I just follow and makes sure she doesn't break anything." "You're a gargantuan, golden lion..." said Lupus "I somehow suspect she draws way less attention than you." Taurus snickered "Funny, coming from the crimson bull..." "Oi...!" he retorted. "Wow, you're mean..." said the girl. "You're one to talk...?" She raised an eyebrow in confusion, while Lio punched him in the arm. "Uh...forget it...Let's just move on..." "So you're coming with us...?" "Yeah..." Her eyes lit up, as the three transformed back into beast mode. "No..." "But I didn't..." she replied with disappointment. "Doesn't matter, you're not riding on me like some common beast!" She pouted." Some time later they group walked through the forest, the sun clear in the sky and girl on Lupus' back. While she held the smirk of a child very much proud of their accomplishment, Lupus walked with his head down in shame and a countenance that spoke of annoyance, while the other two were most amused with the situation. "So..." she asked "Is anyone finally going to tell me about those monsters that have been attacking us?" "What is there to say...?" said Taurus "They're the bad guys." "Why...?" "What do you mean...?" asked Lupus "Why are they the bad guys? We don't even know what they want..." "They are attacking us." said Lio. "That just makes them our 'enemies', we still don't know why? Why are they the bad guys, why are we the good guys...?" There was a pause as she looked from side to side. "Because they are driven by their desires." said Lupus "They clearly don't care who gets hurt, so long as they get what they want." "But...aren't good guys driven by desires, also...?" Lupus stopped. "It is not the same..." "But...everyone is driven by desire, good guys, bad guys...everyone inbetween...is a desire just 'what I want'?" "...Compassion..." said Lio "There is no compassion with them. They send their monsters to hurt their enemies, regardless of who gets hurt in the first place." "Why are you asking these questions...?" asked Taurus. The girl looked up into the sky and pointed. The three mechanoids looked towards the two black spheres flying towards them. The three mechanoids transformed into robot mode, with the girl landing safely next to a tree. The two spheres landed, rolling and crushing trees and they head towards the robots, stopping and unfolding into two robotic entities. Their faces sported numerous eyes, and mouths bereft of lips and filled with fangs. Beneath their armor, was biomechanical parts and tubing and claws. "Where do you bastards keep coming from?!" shouted Lio. "Take them!" shouted Lupus "With pleasure...!" Taurus retorted. The grey wolf leaped into the air and swung is arms, releasing needles that stuck themselves into the armor of the robotic beasts. Taurus launched lightning bolts from his horns, electrocuting the two while Lio shot a fireball from his chest. Out of the smoke the two beasts rolled, one heading towards the three, causing them to jump out of the way. However Lio, spied the other, heading for the Girl. With his thursters he turned mid air and performed a flying kick burying it in mid air. He jumped off and turned towards her. "Get to safety..." She nodded still, with a stoic expression on her face and ran off into the woods. Lio found then found himself slammed face first into the soil by the beast, which had morphed back into its bipedal form and grabbed him by the head. It threw him back and turned to chase after her, only to be struck in the back by a fireball. It turned in time to receive a punch to the face face by Lio who was flying via his numerous thrusters. The two tussled across the ground, but it ended with the robotic monster grabbing him and chucking him to the side, as it returned to its sphere form and continued onward, after the girl. It rolled crushing trees with impunity as Lio transformed back into beast mode and charged after it. Lupus and Taurus had better luck with their opponent. Lupus peppered his enemy with more needles, as it tried in vain to swat him. Taurus used his strength, via punches, and even taking by the leg and throwing it. It curled up and rolled at them, slowed down by the spikes upon its carapace. Taurus, spread his legs, and dug his feat into the ground. His horn turned and pointed forward, as his chest panel came down, revealing a circular device with three circular diodes within it around a chrome sphere glowing blue. Lupus landed and his wolf head changed as he took a similar stance, the two jaws sliding back as a barrel slid forward out of its throat. The fired beams of energy, Lupus fired a beam of condensed sound so great it w agitated the ear to make a seeming beam, while Taurus fired a beam of electrical bolts, both of which struck the beast, reacting together to destroy it in a large explosion. The two stumbled back and fell to the ground, a bit drained from that attack. "Where are the others...?" asked Lupus. "Those three ran into the woods." As if in response there was a tower of light, in the direction where the Lio and the girl had gone. This light shifted to a starry black mass, into a humanoid which the crouched down, slamming its fist into the ground, and making the mountain range shake. After that it faded away, disappearing as quickly as it came. Moments later Lio came, with the girl on his back, unconscious and covered in dirt. "What was that...?" asked Lupus, the two now in their beast modes. "That is why we have to protect her." Lio replied "No, we have to destroy her, we..." "We never had that power, this human form is not a prison, it is a wall, between the world and her past. Today it cracked." "That..." said Taurus "Is not how she looked like in the past.." "What does it matter...?" asked Lupus "A good deal. We technomorphs should know how hard it is to change our forms. That was different, the glow..." "Rejuvenating..." said Lio "Yes, I've noticed my strength returns quick and my my wounds are mended when she touches me. I have not had to refuel since we first met." "Impossible..." said Lupus "You can't just forgo fuel like that...it is a trick!" "Regardless of what you think, we need to find the others..." Lupus growled in frustration. "We need to find Malpha, she would know the most about our little destroyer there." "What was that...?" asked the older man. He watched the group depart via the video feed from another drone. "Unknown..." said the woman, over the com-system "But it seems we need to take a closer look at these things." "And the creatures that attacked them?" "Perhaps their computers would have information." "Perhaps, I will see about sending in a team." Category:SolZen321 Category:One Shots Category:Episodes Category:Completed